Globalization tendencies in the Czech SME'S - Historical Approach (1997-2004)

The main purpose of this paper is to present historical development of SME’s in the Czech Republic between years 1997-2004. It covers sections about changing strategy approach to prepare SME’s to EU entry and nearly two years in the European Union. The Czech economy made big changes especially in SME field, because before year 1989 in the state managed economy were used only big companies forms. SME’s sector in Czech Republic is now a dynamic growing phenomenon, which has influence on regional labour market, foreign trade and investment possibilities. It is the purpose of making year-to-year research, which has as a main goal to map changes in a SME structure, adaptability and influence of changing factors in our business environment. Research section presents a part of final doctoral thesis about finding main factors, which make impulses to change strategy to be innovative and on the way to knowledge society after the EU accession. As a conclusion is SME suggested to use some development strategies or support cooperation way to be more adaptable on wide European market. Reason is - SME’s have to change their point of view – to think European not only local market orientation. It is the way to continue their business by the innovative direction. Paper covers not only historical data, but also some experience with SME preparation process on strategy changes in time of globalization from management point of view.integration, globalization, innovation tendencies, SME

Foreign Direct Investments in Business Services: Transforming the Visegrád Four Region into a Knowledge-based Economy?

Foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the service sector are widely attributed an important role in bringing more skill-intensive activities into the Visegrad Four (V4). This region—comprising Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia—relied heavily on FDIs in manufacturing, which was often found to generate activities with limited skill content. This contribution deconstructs the chaotic concept of “business services” by analysing the actual nature of service sector activities outsourced and offshored to the V4. Using the knowledge-based economy (KBE) as a benchmark, the paper assesses the potential of service sector outsourcing in contributing to regional competitiveness by increasing the innovative capacity. It also discusses the role of state policies towards service sector FDI (SFDI). The analysis combines data obtained from case studies undertaken in service sector outsourcing projects in V4 countries. Moreover, it draws on interviews with senior employees of investment promotion agencies and publicly available data and statistics on activities within the service sector in the region. It argues that the recent inward investments in business services in the V4 mainly utilize existing local human capital resources, and their contribution to the development of the KBE is limited to employment creation and demand for skilled labour

Evaluation of key positions and employees management level in manufacturing industry - The Czech case

Human resources management, especially the key employees management, has fundamental influence on companies' sustainable business, which has to be considered as the priority of any business functioning. The aim of this paper is to evaluate current level of the key positions and employees management in the Czech business environment and to propose a process of its effective implementation and application in practice. Online questionnaire survey was provided using 105 companies operating in manufacturing industry of the Moravian-Silesian region as the sample. Statistical methods of data analysis were used. Fisher exact test, coefficients Phi and Cramer's V were counted to test relations between variables. The survey results include an evaluation of the present situation as it comes to the use of the key positions and employees management system as well as an identification of interests in new system implementation. There was a low rate of use of given system in these business, with two thirds of companies showing an interest in implementing the new system. The process of implementation and the use of the key positions and employees in practice was proposed. The process is suggested in the way to make its content and form be a certain guide and help for companies to realize particular activities of this process. It would contribute to the successful realization of complex and systematic approach towards the work with the key positions and employees.Web of Science121art. no. 24

Organizational excellence: approaches, models and their use at Czech organizations

Purpose: The paper brings a set of original information related to analysis and description of the current state in the area of excellence models implementation in Czech organisations. It defines these terms, analyses results of special research in Czech organisations and proposes a comprehensive and generic framework how to achieve the organisational excellence. The principal goal of this paper is to present the main possibilities, benefits, limitations and risks related to the practical use of excellence models in Czech organisations. Methodology/Approach: Brainstorming conferences, field research and relevant data analysis, seminars with quality professionals and other managers, comparative literature analysis and interviews were used to reach the principal goal. Findings: The organisational excellence concept is now widely discussed and implemented throughout the world. Unlike, the real situation in most Czech organizations is rather else. Level of knowledge and overall people awareness related to this concept and various excellence models is very low. This finding supports the assumption that is necessary to change company culture towards never-ending excellence effort in Czech organisations by way of systematic knowledge (including best practices) sharing among all levels of organizations staff. Research Limitation/implication: Special research activities focused on analysis and description of current state in area of excellence models implementation, which was performed on a sample of 321 Czech organisations (with more than 20% response rate). Such level of response rate was seriously influenced by the fact that practical use of various excellence models in Czech organisations is rather limited in present days. However, we can suppose the obtained results should be valid or interesting also for another organization, not only in the Czech Republic. Originality/Value of paper: The paper brings an original set of information from special market research as well as the development of a creative and generic framework of the organisational excellence tailored to Czech organisations. Category: Research paperWeb of Science222644

Trading tools for SME´s in "hard times"

Purpose In the last couple of years the world economic growth is getting slower, the share markets are strongly falling down and former confirmed, global players are crushing. This fact has hard impact on nearly all companies and as consequence is falling the business volume, payment morale is worsening, the access to operating and investment capital is more difficult, etc. This situation creates a new dimension of competition because the above mentioned hypercompetition on the markets which is due to developed logistics and information technologies causing lower barriers for entry into these fields, it is now still more intensive as the total volume of businesses is smaller. Scientific aim The main aim is to present results of a research executed in 2009 among small and medium size companies with the following target: To determine the level of usage of the business tools as a part of the crisis management in companies under the context of the world's economic crisis and partial targets: Investigate the effects of the economic crisis upon the economical results of the companies (lower turnover, worse payment morale, aggravated access to financial resources, etc.). Identify tools and provisions in the business whereby the management of companies is striving to solve the situation. Discover the barriers hindering wider usage of these tools in the companies' practice. Methodology/methods During the work were used the methods of secondary research, especially for set up of suitable portfolio of the business tools and acquiring of the information about course of the economic crisis and also methods with questionnaire surveys and for field research among the representatives of the target group (managers of small and middle companies in Czech Republic). In addition to impacts of the economic crisis upon the current activities of the companies there were evaluated mainly the ways for keeping and development of distribution channels, promotion methods, usage of compensation tools (barter trade, counterpurchases) and formation of networks and alliances. Findings The analysis show which impacts have small and medium-sized enterprises during financial crisis. Conclusions The business tools described in the contribution have excellent usage not only in the time of crisis but also in welfare times, when they provide the companies with unique competitive advantages. They should be introduced into the practice of companies and innovate herewith the currently used procedures. The realised research indicated important barriers for wider use of these tools, which will have to be overcome

Institutional Technology and the Chains of Trust: Capital Markets and Privatization in Russia and the Czech Republic

The introduction of mass privatization policies in Russia and the Czech Republic depended on the creation of impersonal capital markets to finance the needs of privatized companies and to provide a secondary market for the trading of securities. Yet, mass privatization created the contradictory conditions of generating millions of poorly informed shareholders, with no efficient markets for the sale of the shares. The absence of financial markets created systematic pressures to move assets by illegal or non-transparent means to users who value them. Privatization created the incentives to destroy the financial markets critical to its success. A comparative case analysis of post-privatization market formation in both these countries demonstrates that the functional necessity for these markets does not engender their own creation. In the absence of institutional mechanisms of state regulation and trust, markets become arenas for political contests and economic manipulation. The irony of these policies is that a principal lesson has been that market reforms cannot create viable markets, only institutional formation can.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39719/3/wp335.pd

Optimizing of the Balanced Scorecard method for management of mining companies with the use of factor analysis

The managers of information age companies cannot rely merely on data derived from past activities of the company and focus on improving existing processes. They need a frame for measuring values that result from strategic goals of the company, a tool, which is focusing on obtaining information about company's current success, as well as finding new driving forces to ensure the future competitiveness of the company. Strategic business performance measurement system the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a suitable tool for improving the competitiveness of industrial companies. During its implementation, however, there is a conflict of perception of the importance of individual goals and measurable characteristics in partial perspectives of the BSC and its actual enforcement of the various strategic objectives in companies. The aim of this article is to verify the accuracy of BSC settings in an environment of selected companies in the Moravian-Silesian region with the emphasis placed on mining companies with the help of multidimensional statistics - factor analysis. The research took place in 2015 in cooperation with managers from the Moravian-Silesian Region (MSR), and it was divided into two kinds of research - quantitative and qualitative.Web of Science22444743